IN THE NEWS RHODESIA ZIMBABWE Robert Mugabe clings

IN THE NEWS: RHODESIA ZIMBABWE Robert Mugabe clings to power (independence from the UK was granted in 1980) The link with your syllabus? Decolonisation + British difficulties from the 1960 s to 1979 / 80. LONDON PARIS & AMSTERDAM Paris: the European Banking Authority (European Monetary gendarme) Amsterdam: European Medicines Agency

BACK TO THE UK … • Postwar policies were a success as social expenditure increased: healthier, better educated, employed and employable people • Thus: AFFLUENT SOCIETY’s ERA (about 20 years +) • However: inflation was about to increase

4) CONSEQUENCES OF POSTWAR POLITICS ON THE STATE ITSELF: • THE STATE’S role increased and became more and more centralised with nationalisations. • That meant: STATE CONTROL of the economy. • Trade-unions were accepted (& encouraged) by the successive governments (ie both Labour and Conservative: see your list of PMs if need be) • What did that involve? Governments consulted TUs on workplace relations, wages policy and economic policy

What came to be called … THE CORPORATE STATE (memorise this phrase. En français, on peut dire « gouvernement des entreprises » ) Oxford dic def: ‘a state governed by representatives not of geographical areas but of vocational corporations of the employers and employees in each trade, profession, or industry’. Surprisingly though NO MININUM WAGE till 1998

CONCLUSION ON the WELFARE STATE • Clement Atlee’s government CHANGED THE creating a NEW NATIONAL CONSENSUS called … FACE of British society … THE POSTWAR CONSENSUS (memorise) You may speak of CONSENSUS POLITICS as both Labour AND Conservative governments agreed on maintaining Atlee’s system. NB: The system remained largely UNCHANGED until 1979 when Mrs Thatcher came into power.

B. FROM WELFARE STATE TO BRITISH DISEASE ie from 1964 to 1979 Introduction: Collins dictionary definition of BRITISH DISEASE: ‘the pattern of strikes and industrial unrest in the 1970 s and early 1980 s supposed by many during this time to be endemic in Britain and to weaken the British economy’ What would Margaret Thatcher say YEARS LATER (after 1979)?

1. How did the UK come to be called The Sick Man of Europe? Many reasons: a) political instability: 6 general elections (but also the country’s first referendum on … Europe, in 1975. Voted ‘Remain’ b) Economic difficulties: more and more unmanageable. i) GROWTH is slowing (ie unemployment is rising) and … ii) … therefore the State’s intervention in the economy increases). iii) Prices increase. Ex: prices recorded in 1974 were 25% higher in 1975. Remedies? consumption was stimulated through higher wages + public spending was increased up to 59% of GDP in 1979)

Consequences on the UK: • High inflation (15% in 1976? ) + the global oil crisis of the 70 s KNOCKED THE WIND OUT of the economy and ultimately led to the FALL OF THE Labour government (James Callaghan PM in 1979). • For your info: the UK was NOT the only country affected in the West. • + energy crises between 1967 and 1979 with the most serious oil crisis in 1973. • + Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 (9 member states at that time. Still 28 today).

2. WHAT ABOUT THE CORPORATE STATE? A BOON or a BANE? • The ROLE of the Trade-Unions had held sway (LEX) over the economy (see Arthur Scargill as leader of the Union of Mine Workers). • Collective bargaining was the rule (negotiations between employer and labour unions over wages, working conditions, working hours, …) • En français « négotiations collectives » , « accords de branche » .

a) What happened? Ex: in 1974, the Conservative PM, Edward Heath, tried to slow down the rise of wages and was forced to resign after a wave of strikes. LEX: social and industrial unrest. The question he asked: WHO GOVERNS BRITAIN?

Labour with Wilson returned to government • … and gave the miners a 35% pay rise. • BUT actually the country had been brought to its knees. • NB: all the fault does not lie on corporate state policies but also on the global oil crisis and the Western world’s economic recession.

b) On the international scene: • 1945: UK third economic power (US, Soviets, UK) • 1979: France, Germany and Japan had overtaken the UK • The example of Germany that had been bombed out flat (structure causative en LS) was able to re-equip itself by investing in industrial modernisation, thanks in the first stages to Marshall Plan Aid. • EEC: the UK became a member in 1973 after being rejected / blocked twice in 1963 and 1967 (De Gaulle) and after the failure of EFTA ie European Free Trade Association (a convention signed in 1959 as an alternative trade bloc to the EEC). The ‘Inner Six’ and the ‘Outer Six’.

Conclusion on the British disease: In the UK, there was this sharp contrast between the country being bankrupt and the dream of a Commonwealth, of the empire and global power that British politicians had in their imagination both in 1945 and later. (this is interpretation) CROISSANCE ZERO et MOROSITE (GLOOM) GRANDISSANTE with the following consequences:

“Now is the winter of our discontent” Richard III, William Shakespeare. This is the opening line of the play

The winter of discontent was the winter of 1978 -1979 Widespread strike movement that occurred during the winter of 19781979 in Britain. The 'Winter of Discontent' marked the largest stoppage of labour since the 1926 General Strike,

Coffins in a disused Liverpool warehouse during the 1978 'Winter of Discontent' waiting for gravediggers to end their strike before funerals could take place Photo: 2007 Getty Images

James Callaghan was then Prime Minister – Labour -- TROOPS WERE ON STANDBY IN CASE A STATE OF EMERGENCY WERE DECLARED

This poster favours the election of the Conservative Party (led, at the time, by Margaret Thatcher) … and could provide a very fine exam document! Anyway, when Margaret and Denis Thatcher moved into 10 Downing Street, on 4 th May 1979, Britain was in - and had been through - a period of drastic turmoil (chaos). Lex: to be well-off = bien se porter, être riche / aisé

C. FROM MARGARET THATCHER’S REVOLUTION TO NEW LABOUR ie from 1979 to 1997

Conservative Party broadcast 1979 • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=V 0 TYvz. AHzwo

1. Revolution? What revolution? a) Mrs Thatcher’s goals in her own words: ‘Our five tasks are: i) To restore the health of our economic and social life, by controlling inflation and striking a fair balance between the rights and duties of the trade union movement. • (2) To restore incentives so that hard work pays, success is rewarded and genuine new jobs are created in an expanding economy. • (3) To uphold Parliament and the rule of law. • (4) To support family life, by helping people to become home-owners, raising the standards of their children's education, and concentrating welfare services on the effective support of the old, the sick, the disabled and those who are in real need. • (5) To strengthen Britain's defences and work with our allies to protect our interests in an increasingly threatening world’. Extract of the Conservative Manifesto of 1979

Who was she? LEARN something of her life story • https: //www. biography. com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796

The Conservatives’ return to power was loved by some, hated by others. • The Telegraph is a right-wing • newspaper. • The cartoonist here is Garland.

She won three general elections May 1979 June 1983 June 1987 BUT she decided to resign in November 1990 (was challenged by conservative MPs throughout 1990). We shall see what caused her downfall. John Major, also a Conservative, became PM in November 1990. Maggie was loved and admired for years

AND SHE WAS HATED for years. This spraypaint graffiti celebrates her death in 2013

THATCHERISM 1) A CNN REPORT AT HER DEATH 2) to bring the spirit of her premiership home to you: a NEW YORK TIMES montage of her ‘memorable remarks’

• Let’s sum her policies up: • PUT AN END TO THE POSTWAR CONSENSUS • In the economy: • - firmly decrease state intervention in the economy, - privatise (public services are sold to private companies, British Rail, electricity, water, telecom, for example). Included: coal mines. That did not go easy: 1984 – 1985 miners’ strike, with the miners trade union – the NUM National Union of Miners -- led by Arthur Scargill. - Do away with what she considered burdens on the state: some university departments (ex Italian department in Aberdeen or research departments and field stations), - Deregulate: the 1986 ‘Big Bang’ that diminished regulation for financial services,

THE CONSERVATIVES’ ECONOMIC POLICIES WERE BASED ON THE ‘ TRICKLE DOWN THEORY’, la «théorie du ruissellement » , which by some venom-tongued creatures was translated as ‘the more I eat, the more crumbs you get’

On the social front: • SELF-HELP through incentives (incitations, encouragements), the idea that becoming self-employed was a panacea, • Council houses and flats (social accommodation) were sold: 4 million British people became owners. Many new owners were able to redecorate and give their homes added value. If they lost their jobs though, there was no accommodation safety net, • Competition in the public sector was introduced: between hospitals and clinics, schools (1993 Education Act ie after MT’s premiership), • Did away with the Ministry of Public Services in 1981.

On the whole the role of the state became more limited but the state became stronger: army and police budgets were increased. YET the Conservatives were hostile to • Devolution* in Wales, Ulster and Scotland. • *DEVOLUTION: a degree of regional autonomy through a parliament or an assembly.

Devolution happened later, in 1997 and 1998: Creation of The Scottish Parliament (in Edinburgh) the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

CONCLUSION ON THE ECONOMY under Mrs Thatcher: She made the British economy fit to face globalisation + services, especially financial (the City) developed till they represented 1/5 th of the GDP. Inflation dropped to 5% but started increasing again towards the end of her premiership.

Mrs Thatcher's relationship with the media was a favourite subject for cartoonists, as this 1979 cartoon shows. In this cartoon, the Prime Minister is furious at the BBC over a Panorama documentary on the IRA. ‘I’m furious! How dare you? You stage-manage the news!’ Publicity given to terrorists?

• MT & Socialism

• This John Cole cartoon was published in 2013

• A cartoon by Rogers from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

The poll tax was reversed by her successor John Major 1990 to 1997

HER SUCCESSORS: • John Major, a Conservative • Tony Blair, Labour NEW LABOUR

2. NEW LABOUR. Another revolution? • 1997 – 2007 with Tony Blair • 2007 – 2010 with Gordon Brown

WHAT IS NEW LABOUR? • ITS HEADS: the founder was TONY BLAIR. • Gordon Brown followed in his footsteps. • THE ‘THIRD WAY’: inspired both by right-wing economics (free-trade, free enterprise) and Labour social measures such as alleviating taxes for the poorest and created a minimum wage in 1998.

THIS MEANT: • - More privatisation • - More reform of the public services (Private Public Partnerships: PPP) • - Increased investment however in education, in health, in transport. ‘ ‘Education, education’, Tony Blair’s words. • Devolution. The Scotland Welsh Act in 1998 granted powers to regional governments (parliaments). • Creation of the Greater London Authority in 1998 • PRO EU: ‘Europe is where we are …’. Quote dictated. • The British State is less powerful because more and more laws were written in Brussels and just voted by the British Parliament. • Euroscepticism still lurking in the background: refusal of the European Single Currency (Maastricht opt-out). • Worked for peace in Ireland was successful.

• Tony Blair supported George W Bush during the Iraqi war of 2003 and that cost him his reputation later.

• WERE THEY SUCCESSFUL? The British middle-classes’ standard of living improved Growth was good The image of the United Kingdom was positive: the City developed further. The government succeeded in curbing poverty however there were still 20% of the British who were poor (one in five). Yet, since 2012 the numbers have been creeping up.